t. Don't
fall into merely current phrases. If you have a long word, see if a
native short one can be put in its place which will be more natural
and stronger. Avoid a Latin vocabulary and use a plain English
one--short words instead of long ones.

Most of all, use _idioms_--English idioms of force. Say an
agreement was "come to." Don't say it was "consummated." For the
difference between idioms and a Latin style, compare Lincoln with
George Washington. One's always interesting and convincing. The
other is dull in spite of all his good sense. How most folk do
misuse and waste words!

Freeman went too far in his use of one-syllable words. It became an
affectation. But he is the only man I can think of that ever did go
too far in that direction. X--would have written a great history if
he had had the natural use of idioms. As it is, he has good sense
and no style; and his book isn't half so interesting as it would
have been if he had some style--some proper value of short,
clear-cut words that mean only one thing and that leave no
vagueness.

You'll get a good style if you practice it. It is in your blood and
temperament and way of saying things. But it's a high art and must
be laboriously cultivated.

Yours affectionately,

W.H.P.

This glimpse of a changing and chastened England appears in a letter of
this period:

* * * * *

The disposition shown by an endless number of such incidents is
something more than a disposition of gratitude of a people helped when
they are hard pressed. All these things show the changed and changing
Englishman. It has already come to him that he may be weaker than he
had thought himself and that he may need friends more than he had once
imagined; and, if he must have helpers and friends, he'd rather have his
own kinsmen. He's a queer "cuss," this Englishman. But he isn't a liar
nor a coward nor any sort of "a yellow dog." He's true, and he never
runs--a possible hero any day, and, when heroic, modest and quiet and
graceful. The trouble with him has been that he got great world power
too easily. In the times when he exploited the world for his own
enrichment, there were no other successful exploiters. It became an easy
game to him. He organized sea traffic and sea power. Of course he became
rich--far, far richer than anybody else, and, ther